Final score: Bruins 3, Panthers 1

The Bruins can now head back up to Boston and enjoy a Thanksgiving day with a big “W” under their belt.

Boston played catch-up once again tonight, scoring three third period goals to defeat the Florida Panthers 3-1

The B’s have now improved to 12-6-2, 26 points, and 8-2-0 on the road

Brad Marchand got things going at 0:08 into the third, scoring his third of the season and his second on the shorthand

Mark Recchi netted the last two Bruins’ goals, one being the game-winner, while pocketing his 1,500th career point in his Hall of Fame career

Tim Thomas came up big all night, stopping 31-of-32 Florida shots en route to his 11th win of the season, while remaining atop the NHL leaderboard in goals-against average and save-percentage

Head coach Claude Julien shuffled the lines a bit in the third perio, providing that small spark that the team needed to skate past Florida tonight — Krejci went back to centering Wheeler and Ryder; Bergeron was in the middle of Lucic and Horton; Campbell jumped up to skate with Caron and Recchi; while Seguin spent some time with Marchand and Thornton

Speaking of line changes: after scoring just two for their previous 26 times on the power play, that’s all they needed — Julien rolled with the line (below) on the 5-on-3 when Recchi put the B’s up 2-1.

Lucic—Krejci—Recchi
Bergeron—Chara

Lucic, Horton, and Recchi each had team-highs with four shots on goal a piece

Boston outshot Florida 37-32 tonight, including 18-8 in the final frame

The Black and Gold killed-off all two times shorthanded tonight, now having killed 24 of their last 25 times short

Boston hosts the Carolina Hurricanes at the TD Garden at noon on Friday, and are schedule for eight games over the next 15 days